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Social Brings Passionate Customers into the Game

The co-founder of IGN Entertainment discusses how the video game site uses opinion-based social interactions to foster a thriving community of online users.

Social is the glue that holds together our IGN site experience. We became a web property more than 16 years ago—long before today’s social media giants came on the scene. Facilitating a social experience among our users has consistently been at the core of what we do. We morphed from exclusively trying to pull visitors to our website to proactively pushing content to gamers through social channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Our premium content lies at the heart of the strategy. We deliver it via recognizable online personalities, intended to resemble the person on the couch next to you playing a video game.

Opinion is the basis of our social interaction. But opinion can be a two-edged sword. People sometimes talk about games two years before their release, and it’s almost as if they’re “willing” games to be good. Heated online conversations are generated when highly anticipated games receive negative reviews. For our users, these conversations can sometimes be about satisfying expectations or justifying purchase decisions rather than about the game itself. The editorial team has to actively participate in discussions to make sure the audience doesn’t hold the reviewer responsible for the game’s shortcomings. The openness of voice we strive for can also be challenging for our relationship with the industry. However, we believe authenticity is at the core of engagement—especially via social channels. Game developer Peter Molyneux signed on our wall, “Thank you for all the reviews, both the good ones and the bad ones.” The bad reviews give him an added push to improve his upcoming products.

IGN went public right before the dot-com crash and started looking for alternate revenue streams. At that time, we had a vibrant community on our message boards, accounting for approximately 50 percent of our page views. In experimenting with approaches to monetize our user base, we moved a large portion of our message boards behind a paywall. Though the short-term gain was beneficial, instituting the paywall ultimately stunted our growth and created a love-hate relationship with the most vocal segment of our user base. Shortly thereafter, we moved the paywall back and reintroduced free forums. Two years ago, we created a subscription service, called Prime, which lets subscribers behind the “velvet rope.” The service gives them an ad-free experience, free games, and access to our editorial team—but does not keep out other users. The moment we pivoted, we saw the site’s growth return.

I recommend four steps for getting started with social channels:

First, understand your baseline audience. We run an annual segmentation study to determine who is represented in our audience.

Second, identify and activate your social influencers. We labeled this segment our “All Stars” and designate a staff member to interface with them. Although All Stars are influential enough to run their own blogs and cultivate their own Twitter followers, we also want them to keep using our tools and share our content. To encourage this, we provide rewards in the form of social currency, such as highlighting their commentary on IGN’s homepage.

Third, execute on your plan. For example, facilitate giveaways and contests that encourage your audience to share comments and content.

Last, appropriately measure your outreach. Different content is appropriate for different social channels. Some channels are better suited for traffic referrals and others for starting conversations and getting the word out. Don’t get caught up in “vanity metrics,” such as how many followers you have. Focus on what matters: true engagement, quality content sharing, and commentary.

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